Awakening
by EmeraldElphaba
Summary: A oneshot for the 10th anniversary of Wicked. When she was young, all Elphaba wanted was to have a happily ever after of her own. But when she starts to have feelings for Fiyero, she just might start wondering if fairy tales do come true. Fiyeraba.


**AN: I decided to post this now because tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of Wicked, and I figured the story theme kind of fits. Also, the fairy tale referenced in this is Sleeping Beauty, but I changed some of it to make it more Ozian (I guess).**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Wicked.**

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Melena pulled a thick book off of the dusty bookshelf. Elphaba watched intently, reading the words embroidered on the tattered spine with golden thread: _Happily Ever After._ Although she was not yet four years old, she had read parts of this book before, by herself. It was one of her favorites.

Elphaba continued to stare wide-eyed at the book as Melena cracked it open. The pages were yellowed and smelled moldy; it had belonged to Melena's mother, and before that, her grandmother. The young mother turned the pages, causing dust to float up into the air, and settled on her personal favorite fairy tale. Elphaba listened, drifting off into her own little world as the story unfolded inside her head.

"_Once upon a time_," Melena began, voice smooth like honey, "_there was a castle in the woods, where a good King and a beautiful Queen lived. The King and Queen had a child, a baby girl, who was a Princess. But on the day the little Princess was born, a wicked witch came to the castle and demanded to see the child. When the Queen refused, the witch cast a spell on the Princess, so that she would die on her eighteenth birthday. Luckily, a good witch found the castle just in time. There was nothing she could do to reverse the spell._"

Elphaba's chocolate brown eyes widened. "Why couldn't she reverse it?"

"Spells are irreversible, Fabala," Melena explained.

"_But the good witch was able to cast another spell to counteract the first one. Now, instead of dying, the Princess would simply fall asleep, only to awake with true love's kiss. _

_So the Princess grew up in the castle, unaware of the curse placed on her by the wicked witch. She was very beautiful, with long hair as dark as midnight, and everybody loved her for her kind actions. Every day, she would go out into the palace gardens and play with the Animals, who loved her even more than everyone else did. _

_The day came when she turned eighteen, and that evening she closed her eyes and went to sleep. Not knowing about the spells, many people tried to wake her, but nothing worked. She remained asleep, and would until she found true love._

_One day, a Prince came walking through the woods and found the castle. He climbed the walls to get inside, and found the Princess, sound asleep on a bed in the highest tower. He recognized her, and remembered playing with her outside as a child. He had always loved her, more than anyone else. He placed his lips on hers, and just as suddenly as she had fallen asleep, the Princess awoke._

_The entire kingdom celebrated her awakening, and the Prince and Princess lived happily ever after. The end_."

Melena slowly closed the book, planting a small kiss on her daughter's cheek.

Elphaba looked up at the ceiling, closing her eyes and imagining herself with her Prince. She longed for her dreams to come true. To live a fairy tale life, for someone to truly love her, and to have a happily ever after of her own…

But the only time that ever seemed to happen was in stories.

* * *

"Fiyero!" Elphaba called, but it was no use. She had already scared him off.

For a moment, she had felt like she was in love. It had even, for a fraction of a second, seemed like he loved her back. It was all so strange to her. Fiyero Tiggular, Prince of the Vinkus, had never cared that she existed until that moment. He wanted nothing to do with the green girl. He had helped her save the Lion cub, only to run off when he realized what he was doing. And somehow, she had accidentally cast a spell on everyone…except for him.

Elphaba sighed. She had stopped believing in fairy tales long ago for this very reason. Nobody would ever love a girl with green skin. It was ridiculous that she had ever believed in true love in the first place.

Galinda had won Fiyero. She had a life like the princesses in fairy tales.

Elphaba could never be with Fiyero. Why had the thought even crossed her mind? She silently scolded herself for thinking about him, Galinda's boyfriend, in that way.

But Elphaba still secretly longed that Fiyero would be her Prince, the one who would remove her from the misery in which she was trapped, like the one in the story her mother used to read to her.

She wanted him to be the one who would wake her from the nightmare she was living and give her a happily ever after.

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**AN: Thank you for taking your time to read this story!**

**~EmeraldElphaba**


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